When share price accelerates exponentially with our covered call writing stocks, the strike moves deeper in-the-money. Although the intrinsic-value component of the option premium rises, the time-value component approaches zero. This creates an opportunity to consider our mid-contract unwind exit strategy. Before implementing this, or any others in our exit strategy arsenal, we must identify […]
Am I Losing Money When I Buy Back My Deep In-The-Money Strike?
Recognizing successful covered call writing trades is just as important as executing them. On January 17, 2020, Mark wrote to me about a covered call trade that he was analyzing with SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG). He was concerned that if he bought back a deep in-the-money call, he would suffer a significant loss. Mark’s […]
Combining In-The-Money Strikes and Stock Dividends to Provide Protection in Bear Markets + Holiday Discounts
When establishing our covered call writing trades, we must factor in current market conditions to either add protection in bear and volatile environments or to take advantage of normal to bull market scenarios. On May 17, 2019, Mauricio sent me a diagrammatic strategy proposal that would lower the breakeven using an in-the-money (ITM) strike as […]
Selling Deep In-The-Money Calls to Exit Stock Positions
Covered call writing is used predominantly to generate cash flow in a low-risk manner. But it can also be used to exit stock positions while mitigating losses in those trades. As an example, I will use a series of trades shared with me by Ashvin on May 16th, 2019. The underlying security was iShares MSCI […]
In-The-Money Covered Calls: Intrinsic Value Protects Time Value: A Real-Life Example with TEAM + New Tool Coming Soon
Meaningful option calculations are essential in determining if the premiums meet our covered call writing goals. To this end, we must understand the mathematics of these calculations to become elite option-sellers. Now don’t worry…we don’t have to become Albert Einstein to be successful. But we do have to have a general understanding of the components […]
Understanding the “Paid-Up” Risk When Rolling Out-And-Up: A Real-Life Example with FIVE
One of our covered call writing exit strategies when the strike is in-the-money on expiration Friday is rolling out-and-up. This is when we buy back the near-month call (buy-to-close) and sell the next month’s higher strike. There are times when share appreciation has dramatically increased above the near-month strike price such that buying back the […]
Increasing Capital Gains When Selling Stock: Another Use for Covered call Writing
Covered call writing is a low-risk option-selling strategy typically used to generate monthly cash flow. When we capture call premium into our brokerage accounts, we are lowering our cost basis thereby increasing the opportunities for successful trades. This strategy can also be crafted to increase our capital gains (or decrease capital losses) when we decide […]
Understanding the Impact Implied Volatility has on Delta
For covered call writers and put-sellers, the option Greeks play a major role in our understanding of the risks and value of our option premiums. We know our option premiums consist of intrinsic value (for in-the-money strikes) + time value. Our initial time value returns reflect the time to expiration + the volatility of the […]
Rolling Out-And-Up: Explaining the “Bought-Up” Value of our Stocks
One of our covered call writing exit strategies is rolling out-and-up. This involves buying back (buy-to-close) the current in-the-money option and selling the later-date higher strike price. For example, we may buy back the October $50.00 call option and then sell the November $55.00 call option. We would consider such action if the expiring strike […]
In-The-Money Call Strikes: Intrinsic Value Protects Time Value
Strike price selection is one of the 3 required skills for covered call writing and put-selling. When we sell in-the-money call options we are protecting our positions to the downside while still generating the time value initial profits we have established in our strategy goals. In return, we are relinquishing any opportunity to generate additional […]
Podcast
- 104. Special 1 Time Dividends and Contract Adjustments
- 103. The Collar Strategy Using Long-Term Put Expirations
- 102. Analyzing Market Assessment Based on Portfolio Setup
- 101. Covered Call Writing: "Hitting a Double" on the Last day of a Contract
- 100. Analyzing LEAPS for The Poor Man's Covered call Strategy (PMCC)
- 99. Anatomy of a Reverse Stock Split
- 98. Analyzing LEAPS Options for the Poor Man's Covered Call
- 97. Managing Our Poor Man's Covered Call Trades When Share Price Drops Substantially
- 96. Protecting Our Covered Call Trades: Protective Puts and In-the-Money Strikes
- 95. Covered Call Writing to Generate Premium and Dividend Income
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